Wikipedia Founder Launches Wikitribune To Counter Fake News
Online encyclopedia Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales announced yesterday that he is launching a new website called Wikitribune that aims to halt the rise and spread of fake news. The website, which Wales said is crowd-funded, will be a free-for-all platform with no advertising placements.
Wikitribune articles and stories will be authored and verified by 10 credited journalists, while also allowing readers to raise issues regarding content by submitting fixes that will be reviewed prior to publishing. Wales says, "This will be the first time that professional journalists and citizen journalists will work side-by-side as equals writing stories as they happen, editing them live as they develop, and at all times backed by a community checking and rechecking all facts."
This strategy ensures and fact-checks submissions, leaving no room for fake news to flourish. Wales assures transparency in the site's articles and reportings, as everything will be backed up by transcripts, videos and audios of interviews.
According to Wales, Wikitribune will cover a variety of issues like politics, but also science and technology. He describes this new platform as "news for the people and by the people". Wales is hoping that the fundraising for the website goes well so he can hire the first journalists in time for the election in Britain on June 8.
Wales says in a promo video for Wikitribune, "The news is broken, but we've figured out how to fix it." He added that because most news websites rely on money from ads, they are motivated more by creating click-bait titles rather than making credible, quality content. The looming propagation of fake news has recently become a topic in several political discourses and debates online, which prompted the Wikipedia founder to take action once and for all.
The homepage for the evidence-based news website is now up and running but no articles have been posted yet. However, volunteers and interested readers are already welcome to support the funding. According to the countdown ticker on the site, Wikitribune will go live in exactly 28 days.